Farmer Reaps A $6 Million Harvest

BLOOMINGTON, ILL. — The man largely responsible for making Diamond-Star happen here struck a tough bargain but is now feeling a little ``apprehensive.``

``I wonder whether I did the right thing by going along,`` said Gordon Kruger, whose 508 acres of land are the cornerstone of the site of the joint Chrysler-Mitsubishi auto plant.

But Kruger will be consoled by the $6.1 million he`ll get from the State of Illinois and the belief that ``it`s going to be a real good thing for everyone in the community.``

Kruger`s tract of rich central Illinois farmland is being combined with 128 acres being given by the state to Chrysler Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. for construction of the Diamond-Star Motors Corp., an auto-manufacturing plant.

A crucial railroad crossing sits on Kruger`s land, he said, and ``without me the whole thing couldn`t happen.`` Perhaps that is why he was such a tough bargainer. He is getting $12,000 an acre from the state in an area where even the best farmland is not going for much more than $2,000 an acre.

Chrysler and Mitsubishi expect the plant to create about 2,500 jobs for autoworkers and 8,000 to 9,000 ancillary jobs in the Bloomington-Normal area. Although the joint-venture plant was not even officially announced until Monday and will not be completed for more than two years, Robert Davidson of the local Illinois Department of Employment Security office expects job applicants to begin lining up Tuesday.

Reaction varied, but few could doubt the economic benefits the plant will bring Bloomington-Normal and the surrounding area.

At a press conference Monday morning across from the plant site attended by state, county and local officials, Normal Mayor Paul Harmon said Diamond-Star would put ``the frosting on the cake for the Bloomington-Normal economy.``

These twin cities in McLean County, which have a combined population of 80,000, already enjoy a diversified economy, as shown by their unemployment rate of 5.8 percent, well below the state average. McLean County is the state`s largest corn and soybean producer. Bloomington-Normal`s major employer, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., continues to expand locally, and Illinois State University, in Normal, offers the educational opportunities cited by Chrysler as one reason for choosing to locate in the area.

The plant will strengthen Bloomington-Normal`s only weak link, manufacturing, which accounts for only 11 percent of the county`s employment. Bloomington Mayor Jesse Smart said the plant ``breaks the trend`` of modern auto-manufacturing facilities locating in the Sunbelt. ``This is only the beginning,`` he said. ``This project has launched central Illinois.``

Neighbors of the project site immediately west of Bloomington-Normal lamented the loss of prime farmland but mostly seemed resigned to the change. ``You can`t stop progress,`` said Robert Thompson, a farmer who lives near the plant site.

Nancy Boitnott, another neighbor, remained good-natured even about the fact that a rural road running by the family farm will be widened to four lanes, routing it right through her family`s living room.

``If it`s going to be good for the community,`` that`s good, said Lynn Rader, who will be forced to move from his house at the edge of the plant site. Rader, a farmer who hopes to land a night job at the new factory, said he disappointed only because the plant site will occupy some of the richest Illinois farm soil.

Several other neighbors, though, complained about the state and local incentives given to Mitsubishi and Chrysler to attract the plant. ``I don`t like the state giving the Japanese everything under the sun,`` said John Boozell, a retired farmer who lives just across the railroad tracks from the site.

But the economic benefits for the area cannot be denied. Despite property-tax abatements for a 10-year period, Herman Dirks, Bloomington city manager, said the plant would eventually mean more than $400,000 a year in property taxes for Bloomington-Normal.